Strictly Come Dancing attracted a bigger audience than The X Factor for the first time this year on Saturday night, also topping 10 million viewers for the first time in 2011.

The BBC1 talent show averaged 10.2 million viewers and a 42.7% audience share between 6.30pm and 8.10pm.

Over on ITV1 The X Factor averaged 9.6 million viewers and a 38.8% share between 8pm and 9.45pm. The X Factor audience rose to 9.9 million when ITV1+1 viewers are included.

Strictly has been ahead of The X Factor in the 10 or 15 minutes when the two shows are head to head for the past two weekends, but Saturday was the first time in 2011 when it has been ahead on overall average audience.

The trend for The X Factor's audience to be well below last year's level for the equivalent episode also continued. On the last Saturday of October in 2010, ITV1's biggest hit show averaged 12.2 million viewers and a 47.1% share – 2.6 million more than watched at the weekend. A year ago Strictly averaged 10.4 million viewers.

Piers Morgan's Life Stories returned for a new series, following The X Factor at 9.45pm. Morgan's encounter with James Corden averaged 4.2 million viewers and a 19.7% share (4.4 million including ITV1+1).

Competition included BBC1's late news (4.3 million/20.1%) and Match of the Day (4.6 million/27.2%), and Channel 5's Big Brother (900,000/4.3%).

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

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